Thursday, December 8, 2016

As with the IG-18 in the previous post, I scored an AN/URM-25D that looked like warmed-over dog shit outside but turned out to be very promising inside. Actually, when I stuck it on the bench and checked it out just6 after the swap meet, it was dead on and rock stable. Aside from the cosmetics, the dial lights were burnt out and one of the bands was intermittent.

Here's the "before" pictures:

..replaced the lights and related circuit with some bright LEDs but am less than happy with their brilliance - but they'll do. As for the intermittent band, I disassembled the unit and started poking and prodding but could not find anything amiss with the circuit. In the procees of doing that, however, I lifted the legs on a couple of components so the could be checked. When they were re-soldered, the band seemed to function correctly. SO, I saw no reason to go further.

Here are the "during" pictures:

Afterwards, I gave it a good cleaning, repainted the case, and put it back together. Will add they "after" pictures when I get a chance.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

But then I would have to amend that to say that old gear crops up as swap meets in clusters and this past September was no exception. Or, perhaps more precisely, it WAS and exception. Among the other items I found roiling in my nets as I hoisted it back aboard were two items that were to be R&R (repaired and "re-offered"). One was a AN/URM-25D and the other was this Heathkit IG-18 sine and square wave generator and both cost me $5 each because they looked like hammered crap -- on the outside.

Turns out that this generator -- a product of the late 70s and beloved by audiophiles for their purity and lack of harmonic distortion -- was virtually pristine on the inside. I went through this preliminarily and it seems to be damn close to tolerance. I did a few screwdriver twists on the inside and applied considerable elbow grease to it on the outside and it now resides on the shelf next to a cousin that I picked up for $20 from a previous swap meet. One day, when I am retired, I will go through it stem to stern and bring it up to dead-on.

Until then, it will be a hangar queen like its cousin. Below are the before shots. I will endeavor to get the after shots as time permits.